Wednesday, August 13, 2008

The Law of the Jungle: Lies, Damned Lies, and Misdirections.



Bernard Shaw was Irish. A playwright. But he wrote other things besides plays.


"Now this is the Law of the Jungle -- as old and as true as the sky;
And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the Wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk the Law runneth forward and back --
For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack."

I have long been an admirer  of British poets. This is not unusual; a large number of Americans dote on all things British. With good reason.

"Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was born in Dublin, but moved to London at the age of 20, and lived in England the rest of his life.

"GIVE me a golden pen, and let me lean
On heap’d up flowers, in regions clear, and far;
Bring me a tablet whiter than a star,
Or hand of hymning angel, when ’tis seen
The silver strings of heavenly harp atween:
And let there glide by many a pearly car,
Pink robes, and wavy hair, and diamond jar,
And half discovered wings, and glances keen.
The while let music wander round my ears,
And as it reaches each delicious ending,
Let me write down a line of glorious tone,
And full of many wonders of the spheres:
For what a height my spirit is contending!
’Tis not content so soon to be alone."
----------------

Isn't it amazing how the truth can be tortured without actually telling an outright lie? Can you find even one outright lie in this entire post? And yet the entire piece is a lie from start to finish, isn't it? Tell me about it. Unless you have to Google to tell me about it. As usual, I don't want to listen to you if you Google answers. Anyone can Google things and never bother to educate themselves at all. Tell me what YOU know, please.
----------------


Winston Churchill: "I am a simple man, easily satisfied with the best."

So is Max.

24 comments:

  1. Surely you credit George Bernard Shaw with "do not go gentle into that good night" when in fact this was written by the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas?

    Or is my memory failing me?

    Hope you had a good break and came back refreshed.

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  2. Correct, sage, that is Dylan Thomas, I was about to say that but you posted first. Law of the Jungle I would venture to guess is Rudyard Kipling, one of Max's favorites. The rest? Ya lost me.

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  3. And wait a minute, wasn't Shaw a musical composer, and an American one at that? I've sung several of his compositions. And yes, all of these observations are without googling or wikiing.

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  4. Of course you have guessed that this is simply another mind game post of which I am so fond. There is nothing deep to be found, so don't look. It is merely there to see how many (seeming) discrepancies you can spot (and you may spot more than even I know about) just for the fun of the mental exercise. Hence the ever-present "no Googling" rule.

    Sage, how nice for you to stop by. You always make me happy when you do. Ever since you first explained to me about pub food, especially in the South of England. And you are right of course - GBS didn't write that poem. (And here, Redbeard the music buff would be delighted to be referred to "The Mason Williams Phonograph Record" upon which is the delightful 15 second song: "Dylan Thomas has come and gone, come and gone, come and gone. Dylan Thomas has come and gone; his blood turned to wuurrrrrdds" Perhaps not. But it should be sung to the tune of "London Bridge is Falling Down" should you choose to do so.)

    Several more things to be noticed, though. First, let me point out in my defense that I never actually stated that GBS wrote any of the poetry that appears in this post. Please re-read the title of this post.

    Redbeard, I admit I never heard of GBS writing anything musical. He did do an updated version of "Pygmalion" which was later made into a musical called "My Fair Lady". Perhaps that is what is running through your mind. But I am not the final authority, and you may be correct in what you say.

    Here I think I will stop for a while, so as not to spoil it for other roosters who might yet enter the henhouse.

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  5. Isn't there a Bernard Shaw on CNN? Black dude, reads the news...
    Still thinking of what the Shaw guy's name who wrote church music, I'll have to go look through my old programs.

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  6. Redbeard, just wait for a couple more hours and then you can just Google it. No one is showing any interest in this post anyway. If it weren't for you and Sage it would be s shutout. But one more hint: forget about GBS. He was an Irish playwright who didn't write any of these poems. He is the misdirection in the title. That's all. He was the inference rather than an outright lie. Sheesh, RB! Just tell me who wrote the other two poems besides the one by the drunk guy in Wales.

    Final hint before I put up another post: George Bernard Shaw had a huge full beard.

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  7. Redbeard, yes. Yes there is a newsreader on CNN, or used to be (I don't watch it) named Bernard Shaw. His mother had a thing for old white Irish playwrights. Probably.

    Sure, I could have made this response a part of my earlier one, but I am trying desperately to build up my comment count on this post. If you don't get 10 comments you lose a who sez star.

    Thanks for your help and support. You are here for me even with the dumbest of posts I make. :)

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  8. Sorry, I'm just not really that well read. disappointing, I know.

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  9. And to reward you, I am going to make a post about whaling in Salem and New Bedford. And Nantucket.

    Or maybe a post about obscure songs that only 3 people in the world know about. :)

    That's 9.

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  10. Exactly why I refuse to add Who Sez. But now you're one away, so post away!

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  11. They're not that obscure, just because mainstream radio doesn't play them. They play only what the record companies pay them to play, which is the overplayed shite you normally hear on mainstream radio.

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  12. Redbeard, thanks for number 10 (and for believing you lose a star if you don't get 10 posts.)

    1. If nobody has ever heard them, they are obscure.

    2. I don't listen to radio, mainstream or other. Neither should you. But that's just an opinion. Although:

    3. Unless you can actually back up charges of Payola, you should not throw it out there as if it were really a given. You are starting to sound like the boys over at the Daily KOS and Moveon.ort.

    4. I'm sorry I said that. You are not NEARLY like those guys. Not at all. I will be nice.

    5. The photo is of Rudyard Kipling, though IMPLIED, in some people's minds, to be GBS. And so was the poem about the law of the Jungle. The other poem was by Keats.

    6. I have learned my lesson.

    Onward and upward. Thanks again for helping me save face. I owe you a lot of comments for that. And would make them if you would quit moderating them off, btw.

    :)

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  13. Relax Max,

    I am utterly amazed at the amount of information, poetry and such that you have displayed in this, albeit, tongue-in-cheek post !!!

    And you did this all without the aid of google ... you are, indeed, a veritable warehouse of information !

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  14. Hi Blossom. Where were you when I needed you? Actually this was meant to be a bear trap for my friend Souby, but he never showed. His loss. I gave him a softball to hit out of the park (Americanly speaking) but he blew it.

    And where did it say tht MAX couldn't Google? I came up with the idea (a bad one, true) and the people. But I sure as hell didn't remember all that poetry without copying it from anthologies. Except for the Dylan Thomas one, which the whole WORLD knows. And the Winston Churchill one (which I memorized off a cigar ad in a magazine yesterday while waiting for my dentist to hurt me.)

    Sooooo. Relax Max is much more shallow than you had even suspected. You would have found out sooner or later anyway. Thanks for your comment. :)

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  15. iblossom - didn't you used to have another blog? Help me out here. Your pleasant sarcasm seems oddly familiar. Hints, at least? You are not really Martha Stewart, are you? No. Probably not. Somebody I shouldn't be fighting with, though. I sense that much... :)

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  16. Dylan Thomas, Do not go gentle, probably his second most known work, Next, sounds like Kipling, from The Jungle Book, or maybe the 'Just So' stories, then Keats, what poem, I do not know, but oh, so not GBS's voice there.
    The "Churchill" quote sounds very un-Churchill, too.

    Did I tell you my mother knew and heartily disliked Dylan Thomas?
    Oh.
    Well, that's all.

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  17. Hi, Soubriquet. Better late than never. At least you had the right answers. Including the fact that GBS really had nothing at all to do with the examples shown (and that that isn't his picture, either.)

    Yes, that is why Thomas is even mentioned - to mildly irritate you (because your mother didn't especially like him - to put it mildly) and because his poetry was really, really good. Not that yours isn't.

    Churchill? Once you're dead, people can attribute whatever rubbish they feel like to you. Read the comments to see what authoritative source I got this quote from.

    My own particular favorite quote from Churchill (which I have oddly memorized, but which I don't remember where I read it - backwards for me) is:

    "Never give up. Never, never, never.

    Never."

    Ok. So that one wasn't all that hard to memorize. :)

    And no more fookin' Latin. Not from any of you. Are you listening, A.?

    Thanks for stopping by, my friend.

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  18. But my grandmother adored GBS. The Churchill quote - I've seen it attributed to him, also to Oscar Wilde, worded slightly differently.

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  19. Max, Max!! Relax .... !!!

    No, unfortunately, I'm not Martha .... who wouldn't kill to have her millions ??? and a little jail time to boot - street cred. - girlfriend's got street cred now...

    so ummmm.... actually i am a serial deleter of blogs ..... hard to say where and when you might have run into me.... i can say that 'red' is a clue and my favorite color - not to mention my hair color as well ... i DO believe in the sistahood of pointy heels .... enough clues?
    still stumped?

    shallow? Max, of course i read your profile. i had no mis-conceived notions ...but i will let you in on a small secret (you must keep this one hidden under your lovely red blankie ..... i had not a single clue as to whose quotes, poems, pics those were in this post...ha! and i also cheat at scrabble - i'm great at diverting attention !!)

    As for fighting with me?? Oh dear, i have left you with the wrong impression, if not a fearsome one.

    Let me attempt to elucidate:

    The Kafka quote that Master Soubry posted came from one of my deleted blogs ... he posted his verbose diatribe ... and then "on the side", dared me to show up and jump into his illogical melee. How do i explain?? Soubry and I go back a ways - and this is what we do: tangle, joust, thrust pointy sticks in childish attempts to outdo one another. At times, he trounces me thoroughly (more than i care to admit); other times, i manage to pull a last minute trump card from the sleeve of my jacket .... and occasionally we just call it a draw.

    I do apologize, however, for bringing our verbal play here and taking up your space. And truthfully, he and i are really having a good time poking at one another! I admit, i love verbal battles - but not in a vicious way. And i do enjoy attempting to beat my friend S. at his own game.

    I used to ask S. to come to my poetry blog (original work) and critique - people here in the blogosphere are kind and generous - but i tired of all the 'nice' comments. S. is wonderful at stirring up controversy. I believe on one occasion, the rest of my readers tarred and feathered him, Colonial style. (another of his jibes: he loves to call me a "colonial")

    I do apologize for my acerbic comment on your post, today. I was attempting to play tongue in cheek in the spirit of your post. Ahhh, but my disreputable reputation proceeds me.

    again, apologies.
    if i am allowed to stay in the sandbox, i promise to play nicely...?? (NO! those fingers are NOT crossed behind my back)

    heh.

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  20. a.- Thank you for that. I can't really defend the quote as being truly by Churchill. As I said, I saw it in a magazine in the waiting room at my dentist's office the other day. On a cigar ad, no less. Soubriquet doesn't think it sounds like something Churchill would say. Who knows? That wasn't meant to be part of the deception anyway. It was all the inference that Shaw was the author of all that stuff. No reason, other than to give people a chance to search their memories a little. It's not possible for Max to be deep anyway, right?

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  21. Wow, I didn't think this dorky little post was going to get 20 comments. Of course half or more are mine. :)

    i.blossom, first-I wasn't serious about Martha of course. I was referring to the undertone of sarcasm about me using Google when I had told others not to. So, yes, I am pretty sure you are not she, BUT you still seem like someone I wouldn't want to have to match wits with. (I shouldn't have said "fight".)

    So you are a lady who starts a lot of things but soon loses interest. Cool. No problem. And, yes, I have gathered that your favorite color is red (I have even seen your delightful red toenails recently, I think), and the part about the Sisterhood gets my attention as well, having recently checked that blog out, at least cursorily.

    But basically, if I may be somewhat abrupt, the main thing I was "probing" for was to see it you and Soubriquet were really a couple, or if you were just blog buddies for whom the pointy things being thrust were indeed only verbal and virtual. Which is to obliquely ask if you are available, my dear? Open to other possibilities, as it were?

    This is a little embarrassing even for me, since I will confess that I am not today completely convinced that you are not actually Soubriquet (Master Soubry as he is most pleased to be called) himself. I say this not to insult you - nothing could be further from the truth - but only to be open and honest with you; Souby (as I often call him) has been known to play little tricks using aliases before. So please forgive me. My suspicions are based in large part because I myself have been known to invent a character or two of my own in times past.

    And, you talk a lot like him.

    But I shall stalk you for a while. One of the major things you have going for you are the times of your comments. I can't believe Souby would have enough interest in some passing charade to get out of bed in the wee hours of the morning just to make me think he was commenting from the U.S. You see. So there's that. In your favor, as it were.

    You seem very charming indeed, so I am willing to give you the benefit of the doubt - I DO so want you to be a woman, a woman of great wit and intelligence, whose only fault immediately evident is to have simply fallen in with the wrong crowd.

    I hope you will accept my welcome to my humble blogs and also will accept my sincere apology for any affront my rather rude probing may have caused. I hope at this time next year we will be celebrating the first anniversary of our friendship.

    You are most welcome here, my lovely lady.

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  24. OOOOH hoohoohooo!
    I missed all that.....
    Okay, Max, now let's get it all nice and clear.
    Soubriquet, occasionally referred to as Soubry, by others, not himself, does not have pretty red toenails. He does know persons who have pretty red toenails, but is not in a position to hazard a guess as to what colours the Implausible Bosom most favours, his sparring with her being virtual, even virtuous. But I'm sure she'd elucidate if he so importuned.
    In fact Souberkwit is a person of umm. manly demeanour, and likes bashing about in oily greasy machines.
    Imblossible Possum is most definitely from the distaff side, and as far as I can gather has no interest whatsoever in the greasier points of engines.
    Sub-bucket has, I concede, got a lot of aliases, including Lambrusco Fettucini the fastest motorcyclist in reverse gear. He pops up all over the internet, and is not above spoofing his ip adress of origin to throw the hunters off the scent.
    Oh yes, in one, one only instance (i think) (I lose track of all my alter egos)he created a female persona with which to infiltrate the sisterhood of the pointy heels-. It is important that blokes keep an eye on the 'Monstrous Army of Women'. However, he lays no claim to Impossible Floss'em.
    That said, he and she have crossed swords many a time. She makes statements about literary figures and he attacks them, just to see if she can fight back.

    She does indeed cheat at scrabble.
    Try scrabble over the innertent, and you'll see how difficult it is when americans try to use Samuel Webster's pathetically crippled and WRONG spellings, and then... They just invent words. Claim that a Quzyx is an implement used to castrate mooses in Alabama, or some such nonsense.
    As for the wee small hours... Sickness or insomnia might get me out of bed, but generally, I'm on Greenwich Mean Time.
    Blossom?
    Vive la Difference, I say!

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